Floating Texts: Listening Practices in the Accounts of Foreign River Expeditions in Brazil

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The piece aims to engage with sound studies and the ideas of listening/hearing in three travelogues as an alternative way to thinking about European engagement with and representation of the Amazon. This approach has the potential to contribute to discussions within the fields of travel literature, sound studies, and Amazonian studies, but, in order to so, the article needs to engage more thoroughly with the existing literature. For instance, you mention Mary Louise Pratt's work near the end of the paper, but do not discuss the key construct of her work on travel literature: "imperial eyes". Her study of travel narratives emphasizes how European travelers used the gaze to further imperial projects; Jens Andermann likewise understands the aspects of control of the visual and the gaze in his study The Optics of the State. It would be useful to have a more thorough discussion of how travel narratives often privilege the visual, and the implications of that focus, before turning your attention to the references to sound in the selected narratives. For more on travel literature, you might also look at James Clifford's Routes.

In addition to elaborating and fleshing out more the bibliography on travel literature, it would be useful to have a better understanding as to why you selected the three travelogues included in your analysis. How to the distinct positionalities of the travelers and their particular geopolitic projects inform their projects? Who were the readers of their travelogues? Why might they resort to certain types of language use or associations between sounds and either violence or more bucolic interactions with nature? Further contextualizing these pieces in conversation with secondary literature on travel narratives (Pratt, Clifford, Peter Hulme, Stephen Greenplatt on the idea of Marvelous Possessions) would help to explain the rationale for your comparative analysis. It would also give readers a better idea as to why sound studies or a focus on how hearing, listening, and sounds are portrayed in the examined texts.

Relatedly, the discussion of sound remains more on the surface level. It would be useful to have a deeper dialogue with sound studies as an emerging field. You might consider the works by Jonathan Sterne (Sounds Studies Reader or The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Repoduction), Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier on Aurality, Marília Librandi on Writing by Ear: Clarice Lispector and the Aural Novel, and Tom McEnaney's review articles on sound studies in the context of Latin America. This dialogue with sound studies would help to make it clearer to readers how you are thinking about sound in the written (visual and silent) texts. How do writers gesture toward sound and with what affects? how does foregrounding sounds offer a resistance or a challenge to the visual regime?

Moreover, at one point you gesture toward the ideas of Amerindian multinaturalist perspectivism, as described by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. This concept needs to be further explained to have greater impact within your paper. How does this approach to perceiving the world appear in these travel narratives or, more likely, offer an alternative to the imperial and colonial gaze implemented by the European travelers? At times, you mention "indigenous ways of hearing"; it would be useful to have a more elaborate explanation of that concept. Perhaps you could reference contemporary literary works or documentaries (the works of Davi Kopenawa in collaboration with Bruce Albert on The Falling Sky or the writings of Ailton Krenak) to give examples of other (indigenous) modes of listening.

I have attached the article with some questions/comments in the margins for more specific feedback.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Comments 1: The piece aims to engage with sound studies and the ideas of listening/hearing in three travelogues as an alternative way to thinking about European engagement with and representation of the Amazon. This approach has the potential to contribute to discussions within the fields of travel literature, sound studies, and Amazonian studies, but, in order to so, the article needs to engage more thoroughly with the existing literature. 

Response 1: Thank you for highlighting the importance of engaging more thoroughly with existing literature, particularly the works of Mary Louise Pratt and Jens Andermann. I agree that a more explicit discussion of Pratt's "imperial eyes" and Andermann's "optics of the state" would significantly strengthen the analysis. 

Comments 2:  In addition to elaborating and fleshing out more the bibliography on travel literature, it would be useful to have a better understanding as to why you selected the three travelogues included in your analysis. 

Response 2: Thank you for raising the important point about the rationale behind the selection of the three travelogues. I will add a paragraph to make sure this is addressed. 

Comments 3: Relatedly, the discussion of sound remains more on the surface level. It would be useful to have a deeper dialogue with sound studies as an emerging field. 

Response 3: Thank you for this feedback. I acknowledge that the discussion of sound could benefit from a deeper engagement with sound studies as a field, and I will consider expanding this aspect in the revised manuscript.

Comments 4: Moreover, at one point you gesture toward the ideas of Amerindian multinaturalist perspectivism, as described by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. This concept needs to be further explained to have greater impact within your paper.

Comments 4: Thank you for pointing out the need for further explanation of Amerindian multinaturalist perspectivism. I agree that expanding on this concept would significantly enhance its impact within the paper, and I will consider developing this discussion further in the revision.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript "Floating Texts: Listening Practices in the Accounts of Foreign River Expeditions in Brazil" intends to analyze how listening practices appear in the written accounts of foreign river expeditions in Brazil. The work is relevant as it brings to light indigenous voices in contrast to the history of colonization in Latin America. 

> The Introduction covers a historical approach on European colonialist worldviews in contrast with indigenous modes of living in South America. However, cited references should be provided by the author(s) when possible to improve the quality of the manuscript under review.

 According to the Instructions for Authors
"All the references mentioned in the text should be cited in the “Author-Date” format, for example (Woodward 1987), (Schuman and Scott 1987); An author-date citation in running text or at the end of a block quotation consists of the last (family) name of the author, followed by the year of publication of the work in question." 
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities/instructions

> The results show an interesting study of three foreign expeditions traveled into Brazilian territory in different moments of Brazilian history. As a suggestion, it would be relevant if there were a preliminary exposition of ideas before the analysis of these expeditions, at the beginning of section 2:

2. Results 

[a general idea to be included, allowing to focus on data collection and analysis based on the expeditions]

2.1. The Francisco Orellana Expedition (1540-1542)

> The conclusions could be further explored, taking into account the data provided about the three expeditions. Perhaps a comparative approach on the works analyzed on this essay would produce relevant findings on those "floating texts" as the author(s) suggest(s) in the title, producing a wider view on "Listening Practices in the Accounts of Foreign River Expeditions in Brazil".

The first paragraph of the conclusions brings some preliminary information which could be presented in the results (before the subsections on each expedition).

Finally, this manuscript presents an original and interesting study on indigenous studies and (de)coloniality. However, the paper should be revised with the following points addressed: appropriate citation to the original content must be clearly provided; conclusions should be further strengthened based on the main findings of this study. If the changes are made, I would recommend accepting the manuscript for publication.

Author Response

Comments 1: 

> The Introduction covers a historical approach on European colonialist worldviews in contrast with indigenous modes of living in South America. However, cited references should be provided by the author(s) when possible to improve the quality of the manuscript under review.

 According to the Instructions for Authors
"All the references mentioned in the text should be cited in the “Author-Date” format, for example (Woodward 1987), (Schuman and Scott 1987); An author-date citation in running text or at the end of a block quotation consists of the last (family) name of the author, followed by the year of publication of the work in question." 
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities/instructions

Response 1: Thank you for pointing out the need for citations in the introduction, I'll consider adding those.

Comments 2: The results show an interesting study of three foreign expeditions traveled into Brazilian territory in different moments of Brazilian history. As a suggestion, it would be relevant if there were a preliminary exposition of ideas before the analysis of these expeditions, at the beginning of section 2:

Response 2: Thank you for the suggestion regarding a preliminary exposition in the Results section. I've decided to integrate the arguments directly within the analysis of each expedition. This approach, I believe, will allow for a more contextualized understanding of the findings as they emerge from the specific historical accounts.

Comments 3: The conclusions could be further explored, taking into account the data provided about the three expeditions. Perhaps a comparative approach on the works analyzed on this essay would produce relevant findings on those "floating texts" as the author(s) suggest(s) in the title, producing a wider view on "Listening Practices in the Accounts of Foreign River Expeditions in Brazil".

Response 3: Thank you for the suggestion regarding the Conclusions. I agree that further exploration of the data from the three expeditions would strengthen this section. I will revise the conclusions to delve deeper into the findings related to "floating texts" and listening practices across the analyzed works.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article presents a very original point of view, analysing three travel accounts from different eras. The attention paid to the question of sound is quite original and allows us to look at travelling as a process of recognising the territory, understanding the ways of listening as ways of imposing a European point of view.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your feedback on my article. I appreciate your noting the original perspective.

Best regards,